• address economic exploitation by
requiring a basic minimum wage that can
adequately support workers
• address the impact of climate change on
vulnerable groups, for example by ensuring
protection from harmful health impacts
of natural disasters and environmental
exploitation
• protect against family violence by
requiring emergency housing and access
to social security
• address the gender pay gap by requiring
equal remuneration for work of equal
value, and the provision of parental leave
• address discrimination resulting in poverty
by prohibiting the denial of social security
based on a person’s status (for example,
asylum seekers)
• ensure equal access to education for
children with disability by requiring
the provision of accommodations and
supports in schools.
ICESCR rights are also closely linked with
realisation of self-determination for Indigenous
peoples, and are essential to meeting ‘close the
gap’ targets, which address socio-economic
indicators of disadvantage.51 Until social and
economic rights are fully realised in relation
to First Nations communities, Australia will
continue to have deeply unequal outcomes for
sections of the population, based on race.
Despite the centrality of socio-economic rights
to a fair society, they are often overlooked in
favour of ICCPR rights in domestic contexts. As
the CESCR Committee observed in a statement
to the World Conference on Human Rights in
Vienna in 1993:
Denial of the right to vote or of the
right to freedom of speech, solely on
the grounds of race or sex, is loudly and
rightly condemned by the international
community. Yet deep-rooted forms
of discrimination in the enjoyment of
126
economic, social and cultural rights against
women, the elderly, the disabled and other
vulnerable and disadvantaged groups
are all too often tolerated as unfortunate
realities. Thus, for example, many human
rights advocates have little to say in
response to the fact that women in many
countries ‘are generally rewarded [for
the disproportionate work burden they
bear] with less food, less health care, less
education, less training, less leisure, less
income, less rights and less protection’.52
The Australian public strongly values economic
and social rights, indicating that the lack of
implementation of ICESCR does not reflect the
democratic will of the people. The 2009 NHRCC
consultations involved 35,014 written responses
and 66 community roundtables with 6,000
people, which were held in 52 locations around
Australia.53 The NHRCC compiled and assessed
community views about the rights that were
most important to Australians. The report found
that
Protection and promotion of economic,
social and cultural rights is important
to the community, and the way they are
protected and promoted has a major
impact on the lives of many Australians.
The right to adequate housing, the right
to the highest attainable standard of
physical and mental health, and the right
to education are particular priorities for
the community.54
Additionally, research conducted for the NHRCC,
set out in the Colmar Brunton Social Research
report, highlighted
the tendency for Australians to give
priority to ‘survival’ rights – such as the
right to food, water and clothing and
the right to health and medical care.
For example, 96 per cent of surveyed
respondents considered the right to
sufficient food, water and clothing an
important or very important right; similarly,